The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-07
IMPROVEMENT IN HOUSEHOLD LABOR.

Price nVe cents.
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IMPROVEMENT IN HOUSEHOLD LABOR.
A writer on industrial topics lately enumer-
lted list of much-to-be desired inventions.
any one of which if contrived and perfected
would, he declared, insure a fortune to the
lucky designer. Each and all of the contriv-
ances suggested were for the purpose of saving
labor in various departments of industry, but
of them all not one had any reference to
household operations. Either improvements
In this line Of labo are not regarded as Of
sufficient Importance to attract the attention of
men Of genius-women it is generally agreed
having little inventive talent-or they have
reached tn cir limitations in this direction and
have abandoned the field. For it is fact,
readily verified, that while nearly every man.
ual occupation in which men engage is made
easier of performance and greatly expedited
in its progress by the aid of labor-saving ma
chinery household toll, and particularly that
part Of it which belongs to the kitchen, is in
no wise lightened. Outside of the kitchen is
the sewing machine, the one and only inven-
labor; for this they are expected
to be and doubtless will be eter-
nally grateful; but here their graft
tude may end. No woman. not profess
sional seamstress, need now wear out her soul
and body over the family needlework in
the olden time but no other part of domestic
service is facilitated by such mechanical aids
Baking brol1ng, stewing, washing, ironing
scrubbing and sweeping the same toilsome
operations now as in the days before the
dawn of this inventive era. There is, of
course, an innumerable list of contrivances
warranted to do wonders in the way of assist
ing in these various processes, and, seeing
which, the uneElightened observer is led to
bel ieve that housekeeping has. been made
easy. The cautious housekeeper, however,
grown wary by long experience. looks at
these so-called in provements with a skeptical
eye. She has had the carpet-sweeper that
did not sweep, the four-sifter which was
never in order, the egg-beater that consumed
more time in the cleansing than saved in
@the beating, the thousand-and-one patents
that promised to help but really hindered.
The patent churn in its endless variety is a
proverbial fraud among farmers wives. The
washing machine is delusion and snare.
The shirts and collars the fastidious man
of the house takes to the public laundry
and has washed and dried, starched and pol
ished by machinery; but the rest of
the household linen is rubbed upon
the wa shboard and smoothed with the ''sad
iron"--fitly named tool-in the primitive and
back breaking fashion of the hard working
grandmethers. Rather, indeed. are the do
mestic labors of the modern woman added to
than diminished The exactions of more
luxurious and complicated style of living than
that which obtained at an earlier day involves
elaborate dinners, heavy laundry work, and
incessant toll the part of the one whose
business it is to serve Cup stairs, down stairs,
And in my lady's chamber" The man of the
house goes to his place of business, ascends
to his Office on an elevator, dictates his letters
to a stenographer writes them upon type
writing machine, saves steps and time by tel
ephoning his messages, talks business" by
the hour to chums who drop in, and goes
home under the impression that he has toiled
laboriously. His wife, one Of the host who
are their own servants. has swept, busted,
made beds, prepared not the simple food
that once suffced, but courses of which gra-
vies, salads elaborate side-dishes and pastries
form an indispensable part, all without
the aid of any labor saving device. Possibly
the enthusiasm with which the female popu-
lation welcome natural gas may be accounted
for by the fact that with its advent they will
no longer be under the necessity of carrying
coal, emptying ashes and, softly be it spoken,
of splitting kindling wood. Gas at least,
though not an invention of man, is genuine
labor-saver. There is reason to fear, how
ever, that something more than this is needed
In the way of reducing the demands of the
kitchen upon female muscle before the
advocates of cookery as a fine art will make
much Roadway. Under the present condi-
ton of affairs the young women of the period
hesitates to adopt cooking as a profession for
the same reason that her brother declines to
saw wood or shovel coal as regular occupa-
ton, namely that too much work is involved
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FOOD FISHES OF INDIANA.